Auburn, Ala—The Auburn Tigers (16-11-1, 3-9) faced the No. 4 Tennessee Vols (28-5, 8-1) on the final weekend of March. Despite the Tigers losing the series 2-1, the Tigers ended the Vols 20-game winning streak by defeating the Tigers 4-1 in the final game of the series.
Auburn’s win to finish the series, is also Head Coach Mickey Dean’s 700th career win, and after the game, he said, “They fight, and a lot of people want them to quit and give up, but they aren't going to. We're going to keep fighting. We're going to keep winning."
A win against Tennessee is huge for Auburn, especially since they have not had much success against SEC opponents thus far, however, if the Tigers can carry momentum from this win, then the rest of the season is set to be exciting.
Auburn appeared to be getting better every game in this series, and the final game was when all the pieces just fell into place with the Tigers claiming victory.
In the first game, the Tigers had some struggles with the pitching as Penta gave up three walks and Widra gave up one. The Tigers also struggled with getting people on base, and when they did have people on base they couldn’t convert to scoring.
“You can’t score unless you get people on base,” Dean said, “now, we’re putting people on base and have to come through with some hits and come through with some defensive plays.”
In terms of the offense in both games two and three, the Tigers scored four runs in each game, and though four runs weren’t enough in the second game, it was more than enough in the third.
Across the season, Auburn has struggled with hitting, and scoring, but against Tennessee, they were able to put the pieces together with McCrary and Peralta having a great series.
McCrary had two home runs in Saturday’s game, one in the first and one in the third, and scored a run in the Tigers’ win on Sunday. McCrary was also able to get on base in every game showing why she has the second most runs, 15, for the Tigers.
Peralta’s performance was no less impressive, as she contributed to at least one scoring play for Auburn in every game. In the first she was hit by a pitch with bases loaded leading Wohlers to score, the second saw her scoring a run, and in the final game, she hit a triple on which Packer scored.
“Everything really comes down to execution,” Dean said, and in the final game, the Tigers were able to execute everything perfectly and able to walk away with an impressive win against the No. 4 Tennessee Vols.
The first pitch of Auburn’s midweek game on Wednesday against Samford is at 6:00 pm CT. The game can be found on the Auburn Sports Network and SEC Network+.
